Early balloting opens July 14, as Nashville voters head to the polls to elect the city’s next mayor. Choices are far from limited — with a field that rounds out to 12 candidates.
WPLN News solicited questions from our audience on the issues they are most concerned about. We’ve selected five that we presented to all candidates — on the topics of gun violence, affordable housing, public transportation, the environment and relations with the Tennessee General Assembly.
Nashville remains the only city of its size without a dedicated funding source for transit. The last time a plan to create one was introduced — former Mayor Megan Barry’s “Let’s Move Nashville” referendum in 2018 — it was struck down by Nashville voters.
Yet many residents remain unhappy with the current transit situation. One WPLN listener asked candidates:
How EXACTLY do you plan to fix Nashville’s transportation system?
In their responses, proposals ranged in focus, from rail networks to WeGo ridership to traffic congestion. Many candidates emphasized the importance of establishing a more direct method of transit to the airport. And some candidates reiterated the need for another referendum — outlining how, this time, it could be successful.
Below are answers provided by the 10 candidates who wrote in response to WPLN News. Candidates were asked to limit their responses to around 200 words and are published in full. Responses are organized alphabetically.
Courtesy Natisha Brooks Natisha Brooks
Brooks is a former educator who operated a home school academy. She ran for congressional seats in Republican primaries in 2020 and 2022 and is a self-described “Christian conservative constitutionalist.” She says:
Start with fast bus routes from airport to downtown and high density areas such as Antioch to downtown. Use revenue from “fast bus” routes to fund a monorail system around the county. Use one-cent of the three-cent hospitality tax to help fund the transit system.
Courtesy Senator Heidi Campbell FacebookHeidi Campbell
Campbell currently represents Tennessee’s 20th district in the state Senate. Earlier this year, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in the race for Tennessee’s recently redistricted 5th congressional district. She previously served as the mayor of Oak Hill, a small town in Davidson County that maintains its own municipal government. She says:
One of the biggest obstacles to previous ideas has been the cost of land acquisition. Poor urban planning and Nashville’s rapid development have meant that most proposals cost too much to get off the ground. TDOT studied relocating Radnor Yards out of Nashville almost a decade ago, but the proposal hasn’t been acted on. Doing so would free up the existing rail network to use for commuter rail. The best part? The estimated cost was projected to be six times less than the transit plan proposed in 2018. This proposal would also reduce freight bottlenecks — saving money, increasing efficiency, and bringing new jobs to the mid-state. It’s a win-win situation for freight operators and Nashville transit. The Tennessee Senate just passed the most significant transportation bill in our state’s history. We can use these funds for multimodal connectivity like enhanced bus services, bus-on-shoulder lanes, and a light-rail route from the East Bank to the airport. If we use the Radnor Yard project as a centerpiece and build outwards, it’ll be comprehensive enough to catalyze expansion. We have access to some of the most abundant transit funding in decades. Opportunities abound between the State’s recent transportation bill and the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. My administration will establish a database tracking grant opportunities for transit so that we can take advantage of every resource.
Courtesy Jim for Nashville FacebookJim Gingrich
Gingrich, the former Chief Operating Officer of Wall Street firm AllianceBernstein, retired to his post in 2020. He is not originally from Tennessee, but was part of the team who worked to move the asset management company’s headquarters to Nashville in 2018. He says:
Years of unrestrained growth with no plan to manage it have congested our streets and made our city unsafe for pedestrians. We have had multiple transit studies. Yet, today our congestion is worse than ever, because those studies have gathered dust rather than created action. I will focus on three things: first, last year, we had 49 pedestrian deaths. That is unacceptable. We must fix dangerous intersections, accelerate traffic calming, and invest in sidewalks. Second, let’s get the basics right. Keep our roads in good repair, get our traffic lights synced, increase the frequency of buses and invest in rapid bus service on high volume routes. Third, let’s recognize that 90% of our population growth as a region in the past five years has been in the surrounding counties. We need a regional solution, an effort I will lead.
Courtesy Sharon Hurt campaign Sharon Hurt
At-large Councilmember Sharon Hurt has served on the Metro Council since 2015. She worked with nonprofit Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnerships for 23 years, stepping down from her role as president and CEO in 2021. She says:
Nashville’s current transportation system is another reflection of the tale of two cities that Nashville is becoming. For those that can afford cars, transportation throughout Nashville, while it is not without its troubles, is possible and relatively easy. However, for those that cannot, simple tasks like commuting to work, getting to doctor’s appointments, and picking up groceries become impossible because we don’t have a reliable mass transit system. When I am mayor, I will work to create a multifaceted mass transit package to not only combat this inequitable transportation system but also reduce Nashville’s worsening traffic. To start, I will build a WeGo bus-only lane on Murfreesboro Pike to both encourage public transit and fight against traffic. Additionally, I will work with local companies to promote more flexible work hours and hybrid working models to ease nine-to-five rush hour congestion. In the long run, I will invest in a light rail system, more WeGo bus-only lanes, and protected bike lanes to create a multimodal transportation plan. Improving transportation is not just about reducing traffic; it’s also about promoting equity, and as mayor, I will prioritize both to ensure that all of Nashville has access to the transportation it needs.
Courtesy Stephanie Johnson campaign Stephanie Johnson
Johnson is the creative director of a skincare company and has also served in the Americorps Vista program and the Nashville Mayor’s Youth Summit Council. In 2019, she ran for the District 7 Metro Council seat. She says:
Community problems, community solutions. I see Nashville as a symphony and there are sections in a symphony and each section has a section leader. In this analogy, the sections are our districts and the leaders are the council members. Each council member should be working on circular transportation in their communities. Downtown has great resources from busses, to trolleys, golf carts, etc. These types of modes can be incorporated in every district, helping to put each district in tune with the other. Creating bus hubs in every district as well so members of the community do not have to transfer out of their neighborhoods to get to another place in their neighborhood. In addition, staying at the table with TDOT and other regional partners to continue to communicate our most congested areas of town in our sections. Then moving the city of Nashville to finally vote on a massive transit plan that connects all sections and finally puts us all in tune.
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell
Metro Councilmember and software architect O’Connell has represented District 19 since 2015. Before that, he chaired Metro Transit Authority’s board and led the Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association and served on various other boards and committees. He says:
There is no other candidate in the race as committed to or capable of building the transit system Nashville urgently needs. As a former chair of our transit board and regular rider, I know how important transit is for cost of living and quality of life. We don’t have to wait; we just have to put into action the 3-year WeGo Public Transit work plan already written, which can be done without raising taxes. That plan will create crosstown connectivity and bring traffic out of the downtown core to help everyone get where they need to go faster, and it will bring transit closer to communities, extend hours and frequencies, and introduce more technology. We will also intentionally work on increasing participation in the WeGo Ride program, an employer-sponsored commuter program, especially among businesses receiving incentives. Work I led on Council means that our historically Black colleges & universities (HBCUs) will be able to participate like their peers to allow faculty, staff, & students to ride without fares. Five years after the failure of a transit referendum, we’ll resume the effort to secure dedicated funding, joining the ranks of every other major American city. Right now, the airport and convention center are literally waiting on the city to create the single light rail line that makes the most sense — the one linking the airport to the heart of the city. Transit is the biggest missing ingredient to Nashville’s long-term success, and I’m ready on day one to fix that.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
Alice Rolli
Rolli served as campaign manager for Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander during his 2014 reelection bid. She also worked in the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development under Gov. Bill Haslam. She says:
For all the discussion of what the state is taking away from Metro, we were given the ability to levy dedicated transit funding and we failed spectacularly in 2018 when we took a go-it-alone approach. Davidson County voters — and just as importantly voters from the surrounding counties — are absolutely ready to engage in a thoughtfully planned process which should culminate in a ballot referendum either in November 2024 or 2026. The Rolli administration will absolutely support running a process that listens to residents and is transparent, clear, and regionally aligned. Without dedicated funding we are not able to draw on federal and state dollars and we are putting our taxpayers at a disadvantage relative to other cities that are able to leverage those funds. Near term, incremental improvements can be made with expanded schedule for the STAR commuter train and identifying expansion for satellite Park-N-Ride and neighborhood bus centers that can serve to reduce car trips into downtown. Where feasible, using technology (such as Adaptive Signal Control Technology) to improve traffic synchronization and flow can also alleviate some congestion. We are in for a painful decade ahead as we work to catch our infrastructure up to our expanded population.
Courtesy Metro Nashville Government Vivian Wilhoite
Wilhoite formerly served on the Metro Council, representing District 29 from 2003-2011. In 2016, she was elected as the Davidson County Property Assessor Race, and was re-elected in 2020. She says:
Nashville and Davidson County taxpayers cannot bear the cost alone to resolve mass transit. Our transit solution will be a long-range plan. We will work on year by year. That would include a large-scale regional transit solution, which will take time and cooperation from other local governments from surrounding counties, the state and federal government. As mayor, our immediate solutions will be to invest in traffic calming technology, work with MTA and the Amalgamated Transit Union to improve and increase bus routes, and work with the state of Tennessee to move commercial traffic away from downtown, through efforts of expansion of the 840 bypass and other routes where appropriate.
Courtesy Matt Wiltshire Matt Wiltshire
Wiltshire previously worked for the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. He says:
Anyone who has traveled around Nashville knows this system is completely broken. Every hour a mom or a dad spends sitting behind the wheel coming home from work is an hour they’re not spending at home with their kids or doing something they enjoy. We’ve got to do better. I have a plan that I will put into motion in my first week in office and I want folks to hold me accountable to that. I believe our first investments into mass-transit needs to be gold standard rapid transit between the airport and downtown along Murfreesboro Pike. This will accomplish a few things. First, it will pull cars off the interstate. Second, by building affordable housing at transit stops, we can create the opportunity for folks who work downtown or at the airport to go to work without having to pay $40 or $50 a day to park. This project also will help Nashville build a culture of mass-transit that will lead to more investments in the future. Here’s the best part — the federal government and the Airport Authority likely will pay for a large portion of the cost of this project. We also need to get back to the basics on a few things. We need to invest in our infrastructure and fill the potholes. And we need to increase the frequency of some routes to make the bus system and invest in the physical infrastructure, such as sheltered bus stops, to make transit a more viable option for more families.
Courtesy Jeff Yarbro campaign Jeff Yarbro
Yarbro has served as a Democratic state senator since 2014, representing District 21. He spent four years as the Senate minority leader, and also works as an attorney at Bass, Berry & Sims law firm. He says:
Nashville is the biggest U.S. city lacking a comprehensive transit system, and that needs to change today. The next Mayor must prioritize and secure funding for diverse transport modes. Additionally, we should sustain present funding while investing in minor bike, pedestrian, and bus stop infrastructure for improved transit access, alongside service enhancements for better ridership and dependability. We should also consider private-public partnerships and transit-oriented development for rapid transit lane projects, like Murfreesboro Pike, which upon successful execution, could ease the city’s transition towards dedicated funding.
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